"This campus is no different from any other,"says Thomas R. Raich, a newly hired HASCSprogrammer. "Passwords are just a lock on a door.And I bet you have students on this campus makingtheir own keys."

To combat break-in attempts, Harvard hasintroduced a program called "shadow passwords,"which limits access to the file where studentpasswords are stored. Shadow passwords renderprograms like "crack" useless.

HASCS has also implemented a system in whichstudents can no longer use their names or evenreal words as passwords.

Computer experts and administrators suggestthat students use a password that is a combinationof letters and numbers. Many students say theychange their passwords frequently for addedsecurity.

"I make sure to change my password and on myown computer I have a password," says Aaron B.Brown '97. "The longest I've kept my password istwo weeks. Sometimes I alternate betweenpasswords."

Rules vs. Etiquette

Harvard has made some efforts to keep up withsecurity problems associated with network use. Inthe 1992-93 Handbook for students, rules aboutstudent use of computers dealt primarily withconcerns of plagiarism and theft of electronicmaterials.

In contrast, this year's handbook issignificantly more hip to problems of networksecurity, with passages guaranteeing privacy anoutlawing fake e-mail or any other form ofelectronic "harassment."

But many students charge that, despite thesechanges, the University has failed to make adistinction between rules and etiquette.

And HASCS's "Computer Rules and Etiquettee,which was published last December, says Harvard"does not distinguish computer rules from goodetiquette."

"Is this bad manners or will they bring you upbefore the Ad Board?" asks Jol A. Silver-smith'94, the former director of the Civil LibertiesUnion at Harvard.

The lack of distinction is particularlytroubling, critics, say, because the network is anew, unique medium where direct attacks andpersonal criticism are not unusual.

"Sometimes when you write an [e-mail] letter,you intend it to have a sarcastic tone, butthere's no way to detect it from plain text,"Silversmith says. "I'm not sure whether standardsshould be more or less strict, but to apply thesame standards is problematic at best."

But the handbook for students considersharassment over e-mail as if it were harassment inperson or on the telephone." E-mail harassment isnot the same as harassment over the phone orharassment in person, " Silversmith says.

And censorship is possible, given thatHarvard's system administrators have total accessto students' e-mail.